This Week in Classical Music: March 21, 2022.Johann Sebastian Bach. This is one birthday we cannot miss no matter what:Johann Sebastian Bach was born on this day in 1685.Last year we played Bach’s Cantata BWV 1, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern(How beautifully the morning star shines), composed soon after Bach was made the Thomaskantor in Leipzig in 1723.Number 1 is a quirk of the BWV (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis) catalogue, which lists Bach’s works by the genre and not in a chronological order: Cantatas come first, with the numbers from 1 to 224, then Motets, which are assigned numbers from 225 to 231, and so on.BWV 1, composed in 1725, was not Bach’s first cantata, it wasn’t even part of the first cycle of cantatas, which were composed in 1723-24. Today we’ll turn to BWV 2, Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein (Oh God, look down from heaven), composed for the second Sunday after Trinity and first performed on June 18th of 1724.Even though it has the second BWV number, it was preceded by more than 60 cantatas.Isn’t it time to create a more reasonable catalogue of Bach’s work?Whatever the number, it’s a wonderful piece which is performed hereby Concentus Musicus Wien under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
We’ll stay with Bach in three more interpretations, all three by pianists who were also born this week.First, Egon Petri, a German of Dutch descent, he was born on March 23rd of 1881 in Hannover.A wonderful musician, he was a student and friend of Ferruccio Busoni, and helped his teacher in editing the 25-volume version of all Bach’s clavier compositions.And like Busoni, Egon Petri wrote several piano arrangements of Bach’s music.Here is one of them, the arrangement of Bach’s chorale prelude Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit (I Step Before Thy Throne), BWV 668.Petri recorded it in 1958.
Another brilliant German pianist, Wilhelm Backhaus was three years younger than Petri, he was born on March 26th of 1884 in Leipzig.Backhaus’s career was very long: he went on his first concert tour of England in 1900 and recorded Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 2 with Karl Böhm in April of 1968, when he was 83, his formidable technique still quite in place.The problem with Backhaus (as with Böhm) is that he was a supporter of the Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler in particular.Because he had moved to Switzerland in 1930 (and became a Swiss citizen some years later) Backhaus escaped the denazification process and the stigma he had fully deserved.In a way he was no better than many Russian musicians who are being “canceled” all over Europe and the US today.Here’s Wilhelm Backhaus playing Bach’s French Suite No. 5 in G major, BWV 816.This recording was also made in 1958.
Lastly, the American pianist Byron Janis was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania on March 24th of 1928 into a family of Jewish refugees from Russia (their original name was Yankelevich). As a kid, Janis studied with Josef and Rosina Lhévinne in New York and then became Vladimir Horowitz’s first pupil.He debuted with Rachmaninov’s Second Piano concerto at the age of 15 and played his first Carnegie concert at 20.In 1960, two years after Van Cliburn won the first Tchaikovsky competition, Janis toured the Soviet Union to tremendous success.He was also the first American to win a Grand Prix du Disque.Janis’s brilliant career was cut short by severe arthritis in both hands, which hit him in 1973.Here’s Byron Janis playing Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 643.It’s an arrangement of an organ piece by Franz Liszt.The recording was made in 1948.
Bach 2022
This Week in Classical Music: March 21, 2022. Johann Sebastian Bach. This is one birthday we cannot miss no matter what:Johann Sebastian Bach was born on this day in 1685. Last year
we played Bach’s Cantata BWV 1, Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern(How beautifully the morning star shines), composed soon after Bach was made the Thomaskantor in Leipzig in 1723. Number 1 is a quirk of the BWV (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis) catalogue, which lists Bach’s works by the genre and not in a chronological order: Cantatas come first, with the numbers from 1 to 224, then Motets, which are assigned numbers from 225 to 231, and so on. BWV 1, composed in 1725, was not Bach’s first cantata, it wasn’t even part of the first cycle of cantatas, which were composed in 1723-24. Today we’ll turn to BWV 2, Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein (Oh God, look down from heaven), composed for the second Sunday after Trinity and first performed on June 18th of 1724. Even though it has the second BWV number, it was preceded by more than 60 cantatas. Isn’t it time to create a more reasonable catalogue of Bach’s work? Whatever the number, it’s a wonderful piece which is performed here by Concentus Musicus Wien under the direction of Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
We’ll stay with Bach in three more interpretations, all three by pianists who were also born this week. First, Egon Petri, a German of Dutch descent, he was born on March 23rd of 1881 in Hannover. A wonderful musician, he was a student and friend of Ferruccio Busoni, and helped his teacher in editing the 25-volume version of all Bach’s clavier compositions. And like Busoni, Egon Petri wrote several piano arrangements of Bach’s music. Here is one of them, the arrangement of Bach’s chorale prelude Vor deinen Thron tret ich hiermit (I Step Before Thy Throne), BWV 668. Petri recorded it in 1958.
Another brilliant German pianist, Wilhelm Backhaus was three years younger than Petri, he was born on March 26th of 1884 in Leipzig. Backhaus’s career was very long: he went on his first concert tour of England in 1900 and recorded Brahms’ Piano Concerto no. 2 with Karl Böhm in April of 1968, when he was 83, his formidable technique still quite in place. The problem with Backhaus (as with Böhm) is that he was a supporter of the Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler in particular. Because he had moved to Switzerland in 1930 (and became a Swiss citizen some years later) Backhaus escaped the denazification process and the stigma he had fully deserved. In a way he was no better than many Russian musicians who are being “canceled” all over Europe and the US today. Here’s Wilhelm Backhaus playing Bach’s French Suite No. 5 in G major, BWV 816. This recording was also made in 1958.
Lastly, the American pianist Byron Janis was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania on March 24th of 1928 into a family of Jewish refugees from Russia (their original name was Yankelevich). As a kid, Janis studied with Josef and Rosina Lhévinne in New York and then became Vladimir Horowitz’s first pupil. He debuted with Rachmaninov’s Second Piano concerto at the age of 15 and played his first Carnegie concert at 20. In 1960, two years after Van Cliburn won the first Tchaikovsky competition, Janis toured the Soviet Union to tremendous success. He was also the first American to win a Grand Prix du Disque. Janis’s brilliant career was cut short by severe arthritis in both hands, which hit him in 1973. Here’s Byron Janis playing Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 643. It’s an arrangement of an organ piece by Franz Liszt. The recording was made in 1948.